Short-listing of candidates blamed for legislative registration delay
Short-listing of candidates blamed for legislative registration delay
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Various difficulties concerning the documents required of
legislative candidates have prompted political parties to take
longer before submitting their lists of candidates to the General
Elections Commission (KPU).
The KPU had set Dec. 29 as the deadline for parties to have
submitted the names of their legislative candidates. However,
none of the 24 parties had submitted their candidate lists to the
commission by Friday, only three days before the deadline
expires.
Pande Raja Silalahi, co-chairman of the New Indonesia Alliance
Party (PIB), said his party needed longer to study the documents
required of its candidates.
"We are trying to put only qualified candidates on our list as
quality is our trademark. We have realized, however, that the
process is very time-consuming," he told The Jakarta Post.
The PIB, which is chaired by noted economist Sjahrir, is one
of new parties that has been declared eligible to contest the
2004 elections.
Indonesia will hold its legislative elections in April 2004
and first direct presidential election in July 2004.
Difficulties as regards the necessary documents have also been
experienced by the big and established political parties.
The Golkar Party, which has more than 30 years of political
experience, also said the processes involved were the main reason
it would not submit the names of its legislative candidates right
up until the last moment.
Party chairman Akbar Tandjung revealed on Friday that Golkar
had formed a team especially to short-list the applicants for
legislative candidacies.
"We are evaluating the all the criteria during the
shortlisting process. All of this is designed to ensure that the
best interests of the party are served," he told the press after
providing guidelines for Golkar legislative candidates at the
party's offices in West Jakarta.
Although the rough outline of the list of candidates had been
drawn up, he said, it was not yet final.
"The list of candidates will be finalized as soon as the party
issues a resolution on the matter," he said without giving a
date.
Meanwhile, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, co-chairperson of the
National Awakening Party (PKB), said that the shortlisting
process was taking much longer than expected.
Despite the difficulties faced by the parties, KPU member Anas
Urbaningrum said on Friday that the commission would not extend
the deadline for the parties to submit their candidate lists.
Separately, Golkar's co-chairperson and Minister of Women's
Empowerment, Sri Rejeki Soemaryoto, expressed concern over the
lack of commitment on the part of the political parties to
fulfilling the 30 percent quota for women candidates.
"The commitment of the political parties to putting women on
the ticket is inadequate," she said.
Actress Nurul Arifin, who is a Golkar legislative candidates,
expressed a similar concern.
She suggested that Golkar give new candidates priority on its
list of candidates and sideline politicians who had failed to
perform well in the current House.
Nurul was placed third on Golkar's list of candidates for the
Karawang and Purwakarta electoral districts in West Java. She
said she hoped Golkar executive board members would move her up
to second place to improve her chances.
Khofifah of the PKB said that her party had a strong
commitment to providing greater opportunities for women in
politics. She admitted, however, that a number of PKB branch
offices still had some doubts in this regard.